Remember these old patents? Now look at this image of a magnetic safety razor I found online:
Sadly the only thing I know about it is that the photo is labeled “u magnet safety razor”, but it sure looks like it’s straight out of Mr Ames’ patents.
Razor: BiC Sensitive SE
Brush: Omega #50014 Travel
Lather: BEA Shavestick
Aftershave: Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Additional Care: Alum Travel Stick & WSP Matterhorn Beard Oil
Razor: Mergress “Bling”
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Brush: Omega #10048
Lather: Nivea Mild
Aftershave: BullDog Oil Control Moisturiser
Additional Care: Alum Block & BullDog Original Beard Balm
The Gillette Toggle is one of the more mechanically interesting razors out there… by moving a lever – the “toggle” that gives the razor it’s name – one way or the other the razor head will either open fully to let a user replace a blade, or just a smidgen to let a user rinse the blade.
The mechanism behind the Toggle was patented in 1957, and the patent itself makes for pretty interesting reading. Several springs have to be tuned to work in harmony, and making it adjustable increases the complexity further. I mean, just have a look:
Now compare that to a traditional three piece or even twist-to-open razor… and you understand why the Toggle wasn’t a cheap razor when it was introduced. Now, the Toggle as manufactured wasn’t identical to the patent – changes was likely made to improve ease of manufacture – but it was still a complicated razor as the following drawings show:
If the drawings are a little hard to read, well, I found an image of a disassembled Toggle:
A large spring that – I guess – controls the adjusting razor head, and a smaller one that seems to control the toggle. Or it might be the other way around – this is a razor that makes my head spin a bit. It’s also worth noting all the bushings and washers that allow bits to rotate and slide in relation to each other… this is a razor that will not take kindly to gunk in the mechanism.
As far as I know – or knew, rather – the complexity of the Toggle meant that no one tried to copy it or make a direct competitor. So imagine my surprise and mechanical interest when I stumbled over a thread on my favorite shave forum that pointed me towards Janus Razors; a small scale operation bent on recreating the Toggle.
As far as I can tell it’s not a straight copy, but rather a reimagining of the Toggle adapted for modern materials and manufacture technologies… I’m probably not far of the mark when I’m guessing CNC-machining and investment castings, both technologies that were close to science fiction when the original Toggle was designed.
I’ve found a few images of what I believe is prototypes or preproduction samples:
While I don’t think I’ll get a Janus Toggle myself – limited budget, already have a fairly nice collection of razors in my rotation, and so on – but I’m tickled by the fact that someone is diving into the deep end of mechanically complicated razors and are trying to recreate the Gillette Toggle.
Razor: Mergress “Bling”
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Brush: Semogue TSN LE 2012
Lather: Prairie creations KISS
Aftershave: Nivea Cooling After Shave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block & Scotch Porter Beard Balm
Impossible to cut the face – sounds good.
Shaves Easy, quick and clean – great.
Pays for it self in a fortnight – perhaps a bit of hyperbole?
Every undertaker and embalmer should have one – wait, what‽
It makes sense though, in that corpses are (and were) usually shaved to make them more presentable, and if the safety razor could do it easier, faster, cheaper and with less chance of cuts and the danger of infection… sounds like a great idea to me.
Razor: Mergress “Bling”
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Brush: Gustavo Rimano Manchurian Badger, imitation horn
Lather: Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum Soap
Aftershave: Krampert’s Finest Bay Rum
Additional Care: Alum Block & BullDog Original Beard Oil
Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Lather: Rise Shave Gel
Aftershave: Nivea Cooling After Shave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block BullDog Original Beard Balm
For those who grew up with early eight bit micro computers* – such as myself – the Thing on a Spring was most assuredly a thing… but what has that Thing to do with razors?
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| Click for a trip down memory lane |
Well… it was what I was reminded of when I stumbled upon Herr Felix Meyer’s patent for an “improved” safety razor. I imagine Herr Meyer was standing in his bathroom one morning in Germany and said to himself something along the lines of “Would this razor shave better is ze handle was not so stiff?”
And so he applied for, and got patented, an improvement that – in the words of his patents – was something like this:
In the preferred form of carrying out the invention the handle of the shaving device is made resilient, for instance, by being made or the like spring. Blade, guard and cap are either rigidly mounted together upon the resilient handle and have a common spring action, or the blade is stationary and-only guard and cap are resiliently mounted on the handle, or the cap and guard are stationary, whereas the blade is resilient.
The mechanics of having a moving blade – or moving base plate and top cap – while the rest of the razor is rigid is daunting… which may explain why the preferred form of the invention was a normal enough head mounted on a springy spring.
It is fairly clear from the description that the idea was for the razor to adjust to uneven pressure and sharpness by introducing an amount of ‘give’ to the razor, thus preventing cuts and nicks. Herr Meyer even came up with a way to adjust the stiffness of the handle:
Preferably the handle is so constructed that it does not consist of a single spring but of two coiled or other steel springs, which are inserted the one into the other, in such a manner that the handle can be made more or less rigid by adjusting the said coils, the one in the other. If instead of a coiled spring, a spiral (watch spring) is used for the handle, it is also preferable to make the handle in two parts, which can be taken apart and inserted into each other, so as to be able to again adjust the strength of the spring action at will. The object of the adjustability of the strength of the spring action is to be able to regulate the said spring action according to the growth of the beard or to the sharpness of the blade.
Reading the rather verbose text, it seem that Herr Meyer believed the flexible handle would give a shave closer to that of an experienced barber with a straight – or at least make it less likely for a new shaver to cut himself. Since we still uses razors with stiff, non-resilient handles, I’ll let you all work out how well Herr Meyer’s invention did in the marketplace…
… unlike the Thing on a Spring. That game have stuck with me and a generation of 8-bit gamers.
*) At least those who had a C64 or C128, and I guess those with the Amstrad CPC as well. Not those sad people with a ZX81 or a Spectrum though.
Razor: Gillette Slim
Blade: Shark Super Chrome
Lather: Aubrey Organics North Woods
Aftershave: Nivea Cooling After Shave Balm
Additional Care: Alum Block & BullDog Original Beard Oil
Note: Squeezed the last of the cream from the tube and won’t restock – nice scent, bland performance